At left, WC’s Cookie Johnson (32) goes in for a shot in front of Vicksburg’s Tiffany Hubbard. At right, Vicksburg’s Alfred Patton attempts to get a shot off as WC ‘s Chico Hunter, right, defends. (Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

Johnson scores 24 to spark WC to 68-64 victory

(1/25/04)The Saturday showdown between Warren County’s top two players didn’t disappoint.

Vicksburg’s Tiffany Hubbard and Warren Central’s Cookie Johnson shoved and pushed each other all game, combining for 41 points and 29 rebounds. When all the jostling was finished, Johnson’s Lady Vikes (13-7) escaped with a 68-64 overtime victory while Hubbard sat on the bench with five fouls.

“I felt pretty good when it went into overtime,” WC coach Donny Fuller said. “Our kids came over with their heads down, and I said, Hey, we’re in good shape.’ Hubbard had fouled out, and I thought that was to our advantage.”

Both teams played evenly throughout, but the Missy Gators (12-9) struggled mightily at the free-throw line, shooting an embarrassing 9-of-27.

“That’s really the only thing we didn’t do good today,” VHS coach Mike Coleman said. “Warren Central played a good game, we played a good game and the difference was because we couldn’t make free throws.”

Hubbard led VHS with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting and a game-high 15 rebounds before fouling out with 16.5 seconds left in regulation.

The Lady Vikes brought the ball down court and called for a timeout with 6.9 seconds remaining. They got the ball in to Ebon Williams at the free-throw line, but sophomore Kristin Ellis came up with a huge block that sent the game into overtime.

“We have post players that can be strong,” Hubbard said. “I was trying to push Kristin Ellis to be strong because she’s tougher than what she shows.

“I’m just like a coach out there. But it was devastating to just sit there and watch them play overtime.”

WC’s Tranyce Peoples got the extra period started with a putback basket and a 3-pointer before fouling out with two minutes remaining.

With Hubbard out, Ellis shouldered the scoring burden for the Missy Gators. She drove inside for a pair of shots to tie the game at 62.

Johnson then hit a baseline jumper to give WC the lead, and Carla Latham followed two free throws for a 66-62 lead.

Ellis drove inside again to trim the gap to two, but Johnson grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back for the 68-64 advantage.

The Missy Gators had one final chance and called a timeout with 21.6 seconds remaining, but they turned it over on the inbounds pass.

Johnson scored a game-high 24 points with 14 rebounds.

“Cookie’s been our leading scorer and leading rebounder for the past couple of years,” Fuller said. “We expect her to step it up.”

Vicksburg led 17-13 after the first quarter, but WC fought back in the second by changing defenses.

“I thought we could get something out of the press, but they got to beating the press and getting layups out of it, so we had to get out of it,” Fuller said. “We went back to our halfcourt game and it helped us.”

Down by three, Peoples drilled a shot from behind the arc, and Latham followed with a 3-pointer of her own to give the Lady Vikes’ their first lead, 30-27. WC took a 34-32 lead into the half.

The Missy Gators trailed 47-43 heading into the fourth quarter, but a Hubbard basket tied the game. Johnson responded with a pair of 20-foot jumpers just inside the 3-point line with 4:45 remaining. She made another basket off a rebound with a minute left to give the Lady Vikes a 57-54 lead.

Following a Jazmine Johnson free throw, Vicksburg’s full-court press forced a WC turnover. Hubbard was fouled on a layup and made both free throws to knot up the game at 57 and send it to overtime.

“I don’t even know what happened,” Hubbard said. “We played good. That’s about our best game we played all year.”

Williams’ clutch free-throws gives VHS key 59-55 win over Vikings

(1/25/04)The weight finally has been lifted off the shoulders of the Vicksburg boys basketball players.

Sedrick Williams scored eight of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter including a pair of free throws that iced the game and Vicksburg defeated rival Warren Central 59-55 on Saturday.

Vicksburg (8-13, 1-3 Division 6-5A), which had struggled of late in losing 10 of its last 12, broke a three-game losing streak.

“They just have not been in those types of situations and always have lost those close games. The mind gets you,” VHS coach Dellie Robinson said, adding that turnovers have been the cause of many losses. “Maybe this win right here will be the turning point where we can move on.”

The Vikings (8-12, 2-2) lost a chance at keeping pace with first-place and undefeated Forest Hill. A game removed from beating Northwest Rankin 90-83, Warren Central collapsed on offense.

“We fell back into our mode of lack of mental concentration, and it hurt us there in the end,” WC coach Jesse Johnson said. “I’ve preached all year-long that we can’t get in a situation where we’re missing 10 layups a game.”

The Gators held a comfortable 43-35 lead going into the fourth quarter before Warren Central switched to a full-court press, and cut the lead to 46-45 after back-to-back steals and layups by Anthony Lewis.

Vicksburg responded with a 9-3 run to extend the lead to 55-48. Williams hit four free throws during the run.

But Warren Central was not finished. Three straight Vicksburg turnovers pulled WC to within a bucket with 36 seconds to play.

“That’s been our fort the whole year,” Johnson said. “We just fall behind and then scramble and hustle.”

Trailing by 2, the Vikings got the ball back again and called a timeout to set up a play. Brian Phelps was fouled while driving the lane with 7.5 seconds remaining, but he missed the front end of a 1-and-1.

“I really just couldn’t find it today,” said Phelps, who finished with four points on 2-of-11 shooting. “I guess it just wasn’t my night. I had a whole lot of open shots I could have hit, they just didn’t drop.”

VHS’ Fred Thomas came down with the rebound and passed it to Williams, who was fouled with 2.8 seconds left. He hit both free throws to end any chance of a comeback.

“Those were huge for us. He made some big free throws for us coming down the stretch,” Robinson said. “The game was in his hands, he had an opportunity to win it for us and he did.”

The two are set to meet at least one more time this season on Feb. 7 at WC. They may meet again in the division tournament, which will be played at WC and starts on Feb. 17.

“We were more pumped, more motivated,” Patton said. “It was a rival game and everybody wanted to win it. They beat us the first time, so it was payback.”